Hi there,
I’ve got a rather general question. During a visit of my Hamilton technician, he initialized our Vantage using instinct V, which is no longer supported. I realized that the channels where moving noticeably faster during e.g. tip pickup and pipetting operations in general. After a fresh initialization with VoV the speed was reduced to what I’m used to. So my question is:
Is there a good reason this speed was reduced in VoV or is this a bug? Has this eventually been fixed with Venus 6?
best
Dominik
Hi Dominik,
Prior to VENUS 6, there was a requirement to power cycle the VANTAGE after running daily maintenance. During daily maintenance, some of the default drive speed parameters on the system are lowered from default so the system can take more precise measurements. Once daily maintenance is complete, the system must be power cycled to restore these values to default.
Could it be possible that this may be the issue in this case?
This has also been improved for VENUS 6, as the power cycle after daily maintenance is no longer required to run at normal speed.
The other thing to check would be the setting for automatic locking of the pipettor cabinet in system configuration editor:
If this is set to ‘Disabled’ the pipettor will run with the loading tray open and move at ‘safe speed’ which is considerably lower than default. The system will only run at full speed with this setting enabled, while the loading tray is closed. Even if this setting is enabled, if you send an unlock command during the run (which lowers the loading tray) and don’t subsequently relock the pipettor, the system will also revert to ‘safe speed’.
Let me know of either of these cases were contributing to the slower observed speed.
Thanks.
-Nick
2 Likes
Hi Nick,
sorry I think my question was not specific enough. I wasn’t talking about daily maintanance or loss of speed, but a gain of speed above the speed I’m used to see with locked front door:
Scenario 1:
Initialize with Instinct V - run method with VoV
Chanels move faster in Y and Z direction, resulting in faster tip pickup and pipetting
Scenario 2:
Initialize with VoV - run method with VoV
Chanels move how I’m used to it. Just a bit slower
I was wondering if Instinct V initializes the Vantage with different speed parameters and if so, why it was slowed down.
best
Dominik
Hi Dominik,
I am actually unsure as to this discrepancy between default channel Y and Z drive speed parameters. I will need to look more into this next week.
Based on previous conversations, I am assuming your PC is running INSTINCT 2.3? Let me know otherwise.
Thanks.
-Nick
One followup question:
Between cases 1 and 2, was there a system powercycle? Or powercycles at any other points for that matter?
Thanks.
-Nick
There was a Powercycle in between I think, but I’m not 100% sure. But without a Powecycle, there wouldn’t have been a reason to re-initialize.
The version for Instinct V is 2.3.
Thanks for taking a look into this,
best
Dominik
Hi Dominik,
I was able to confirm this on my end, and the details have been reported to the software team with the request to match all channel drive speeds to what was applied in INSTINCT V. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
For now, the simplest thing to do to run at full channel Y/Z speed is to initialize with INSTINCT V after a power cycle. You’ll just want to remember to stop the HamiltonXRP service (from task manager) after closing INSTINCT.
Once I have a little more time to confirm everything, we can follow up with a library function that can be run at the beginning of each method that will apply these speeds in VoV without having to initialize in INSTINCT.
Thanks.
-Nick
4 Likes
Wow, nice so I get additional speed 
Thank you Nick!
3 Likes
For years, I had the same suspensions. I am happy to hear that i was not hallucinating 
Thanks @dominik.b for bring this.
3 Likes
